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I couldn't find this posted anywhere. Good read on J.R. Living in Denver I can say he was an immature spoiled kid with extreme talent. Every year my friends who are Nuggets fans would say 'This is the year he gets it!' - only to be disappointed by something stupid he would do. After reading the stuff his father said though I would guess he is just a nut that fell of the knucklehead tree!!!

J.R. Smith always had been content to be a backup — the mercurial sixth-man gunner. Not this October. The controversial Smith made it clear he prefers to start for the first time in his career.

He has a good chance, because free-agent signee Ronnie Brewer had knee surgery in early September and won’t start practicing for two weeks. Iman Shumpert, incumbent starter at shooting guard, may not be back until January as he rehabs from ACL surgery. The shooting guard position is Smith’s for the taking. He admitted concern about being pegged as a bench player, perhaps because of a bad-boy rep.

Bill Kostroun
TAKE A SEAT: J.R. Smith,who was the Knicks’ sixth man last season, said he wants to be a starter.
“I’d rather start. I’ve been playing [eight] years, coming off the bench,’’ Smith said yesterday. “Whether it stays [that way] or goes, I’m going to be same person I am. I prefer to start. I’d rather be a starter. If not, I understand that.’’

Smith could never crack the Nuggets starting lineup full time. In 538 career games, he has just 130 starts, but 81 of them came in his first two seasons with New Orleans.

Smith is listed in the training camp guide as “one of the game’s premier sixth men.’’ He started just once with the Knicks last season.

“It gets frustrating after a while,’’ Smith said. “People saying, “he’s a sixth man, sixth man, sixth man’’ when you believe you’re a starter. But you have to understand, it’s a team game and have to put individual goals aside.’’

Nevertheless, Smith came into training camp — for the first time — with starting in mind.

“My goal was come in here and be a starter and try to play with the other four guys on the floor,’’ he said. “As of right now we’ll see how up in the air it is. The last seven years coming into camp, I knew I was going to be Sixth Man. It’s a different approach this year. It’s better to think of it like that.’’

Smith has said he took less to return to the Knicks in July. He declined to exercise his player option in late June and became a free agent. But he reupped for a two-year deal starting at $2.8 million. The second year is a player option, and it was the most the Knicks could pay him under collective bargaining rules since they signed him last February after his China stint.

Smith will reacquire his early Bird rights this summer so it’s in his best interests to be known as a starter since he likely will become a free agent again in 2013 if he excels. There’s speculation he also took less with a gentlemen’s agreement his brother, combo guard Chris Smith, would be offered a contract.

“I wanted to show it’s not about the money,’’ Smith said. “It’s about the winning. I’ve been in this league nine years and I haven’t won anything. Sacrifices off the court and on the court have to take place. It’s a huge way to show it. If we win, it will all takes care of itself. If we win, the endorsement deals and big contracts will come.’’

Smith also has to clean up his act. He got fined last season for posting a photo on his hyperactive Twitter account of a naked woman lying on his Milwaukee hotel-room bed. Last week, Smith wrote a 4 a.m. twitter message about being surprised at a $2,000 bill for ordering one bottle at a nightclub.

Woodson has given lip service to making Smith “more professional’’ but he simply loves Smith’s innate ability to score. Whether Woodson likes Brewer’s defensive steadiness better will be the question of camp.

“I knew I wanted to be here, I knew where I fit in,’’ Smith said. “I looked at other situations, but it wasn’t the right situation for me. There were a lot of teams who were very interested, but it was a matter of who I was interested in.’’

I see a potential underlying issue here that might have effected JR's play in the past. Hes an extremely talented individual but accepted the 6th man role for most of his career without complaining.

Hes approaching his late 20's now and i think he might be realizing its time for him to be more assertive. Hes gotta back it up and show he can be more consistent. Its now or never for him, if hes ever gonna reach his peak he better get going. And I think he has realized this

I see a potential underlying issue here that might have effected JR's play in the past. Hes an extremely talented individual but accepted the 6th man role for most of his career without complaining.

Hes approaching his late 20's now and i think he might be realizing its time for him to be more assertive. Hes gotta back it up and show he can be more consistent. Its now or never for him, if hes ever gonna reach his peak he better get going. And I think he has realized this

If he could be more consistent he would have been already. He is a good 20 minute guy and if gets hot u leave him. Woodson hopefully does not use JR the way he did last year with blind abandonment.

I have said it before...JR surprised me with how he gets after it on the defensive end of the floor, but the 2 guys he's up against (Shump and Brewer) are lock down defenders.

Also he's known as a shooter yet he's only a little bit better shooting than both of Shump and Brewer (and niether are thought as shooters).

So, he has a chance to start opening night...but his Defense is going to have to be better and his shot more consistient...because you can take a step back on defense if the players offense makes up for it (and there are other defenders to help) but if JR is giving those 4 for 16 nights too often then he needs to be on the bench where he is relied on less.

"I'd Rather Melo shoot with 3 men on him than Jefferies shotting wide open"

JR Smith Starter or Sixth Man?

I wonder what you guys here think about JR Smith and where he should play come the start of the season.

I can see the logic of Woody and all the people here who think his potential scoring punch goes best with the 2nd unit coming off the bench. However I think he actually fits better in the starting 5, regardless of Iman being healthy or not.

When Smith comes off the bench in Denver/NY he has to play alongside mostly a group of role players who are not hugely offensively talented. The team often looks for him to create his own shot in situations where we don't have much offensive flow. Smith is pretty good at creating but he's no Kobe and this is affecting his consistency.

Playing alongside the wide variety of offensive prowess in our starting 5, Smith would have much more freedom to settle into his best game, scoring easy jumpers and fast break points. Playing alongside Tyson, STAT and Melo means plenty of open looks.

I remember watching him a few years back in Denver during the playoffs where I think Azubuike was injured so Smith was starting and the 1-2 scoring punch of Melo and Smith was frightening in some games.

Not to mention he obviously wants to start from his comments you can see he'd be a happier player as a starter.

i agree, but at the same time, we wont have any scoring threat (except for novak) comming off the bench and our offense will purely be based on ( i hope kidd hits that 3, or i hope we can get some ball movement going to find open guys, or o ****, camby is going iso..." tahts even scarier